Hungary bans LGBTQ symbols on government buildings

Pride organisers are inactive intent connected holding this year’s parade, contempt the ineligible uncertainty surrounding the event. File | Photo Credit: AP

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban prohibited the show of symbols “referring to oregon promoting” intersexual minorities connected authorities buildings, hours earlier the 30th Budapest Pride festival formally opens connected Friday (June 6, 2025).

The nationalist person has been rolling backmost LGBTQ rights successful the sanction of “child protection” for years and this twelvemonth his governing conjugation adopted ineligible changes aimed astatine barring the yearly Pride march.

The parade is the culmination of the weeks-long Budapest Pride Festival, and this twelvemonth it is scheduled to instrumentality spot connected June 28, contempt the prohibition threat.

A caller decree signed by Orban and published successful the government’s gazette precocious Thursday (June 5, 2025) said that “symbols referring to oregon promoting antithetic intersexual and sex orientations oregon the governmental movements representing them whitethorn not beryllium placed connected buildings” connected to the authorities oregon the cardinal bank.

The Prime Minister’s bureau stressed it is simply a “symbolic” decision, due to the fact that displaying specified symbols was “not communal signifier connected authorities buildings”.

“The authorities decree chiefly confirms that the authorities is afloat committed to curbing LGBTQ propaganda aimed astatine children, whether successful kindergartens, schools, the media oregon nationalist spaces,” it said successful a statement.

Municipal buildings are not affected by the decree. Budapest City Hall has flown the rainbow emblem during each year's Pride festival since wide politician Gergely Karácsony was elected successful 2019.

Pride organisers are inactive intent connected holding this year's parade, contempt the ineligible uncertainty surrounding the event.

On Thursday (June 5, 2025), an advocator wide to the European Court of Justice recommended that Hungary beryllium declared successful breach of EU instrumentality implicit an anti-LGBTQ instrumentality adopted successful 2021.

The authorities prohibits the “display oregon promotion of homosexuality” to under-18s, besides serving arsenic the ground for this year’s caller ineligible changes aiming to prohibition the Pride march.

On Friday (June 6, 2025), Orban blasted the advocator general’s proposal arsenic “shameful”.

“It seems that the state to dispersed intersexual propaganda is much important to the Brusselians than protecting children’s rights. This is madness!” the nationalist person said connected the X societal media platform.

Published - June 06, 2025 10:55 p.m. IST